heel-wayn.
/ˈhiːlweɪ/, U.S. /ˈhilˌweɪ/ 1. Hunting. With reference to a hound following a scent: the trail of a fox which leads back to where it has come from, rather than towards it; the reverse direction to that taken by the quarry. Now rare.Cf. to run heel at heel n.1 and int. Phrases 2j, heel-way adv.
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1785 Sportsman's Dict. (ed. 3) at Trailing The Dogs, over eager and busy, often hit the heelway, or draw amiss.
1865 Bell's Life in London 21 Jan. 8/3 The hounds in making their cast got on the heel way of a fox... When we retraced our steps too much time had been lost.
1897 Country Life Illustr. 16 Jan. 54/2 Our run fox might have retraced his steps some little distance and..part of the pack might have got on his heel way.
1936 D. W. E. Brock ABC of Fox-hunting v. 77 He will draw his hounds..at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the direction which the fox was taking... This he does to avoid hitting the heel-way, and letting the hounds hunt the fox's line back into covert.
1979 I. Bell Huntsman in Field i. 21 Get your hounds at once on the side into which the fox has crossed..[or] there is good chance they will strike the heel-way.
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1811 J. J. Conybeare tr. Grave in Archaeologia (1814) 17 174 The heel-ways are low, The side-ways unhigh [L. Spatium a calce humile est, A latere non altum].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
heel-wayadv.
/ˈhiːlweɪ/, U.S. /ˈhilˌweɪ/ Hunting. Now rare.
With reference to a hound following the scent: in the opposite direction to that taken by the quarry, backwards. Cf. heel n.1 and int. Phrases 2j.
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1839 F. P. D. Radcliffe Noble Sci.: Ideas Fox-hunting ix. 150 You may be of real use if you enable a huntsman to lay his hounds on the last space which you saw occupied by the fox; taking care, of course, to turn your horse's head, and wave your hand in the direction he is gone, to prevent their taking heel way.
1844 New Sporting Mag. July 48 One of the old ones hit upon a scent, which at first he took heel-way.
1873 Notes & Queries 4th Ser. 12 198/1 There is a sporting phrase, to ‘run heel-way’, when, after a check, hounds take up the scent in the wrong direction, running back towards the start.
1908 Baily's Mag. Oct. 573/2 There's old ‘Borderer’, again, running heel-way.
1938 Times 4 Mar. 6/3 Perhaps the hounds might hit off the line heel-way and run up to some strange-looking hutch or pen in the middle of the covert.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1785
adv.1839